Chronal
by gaybaconprincess
Summary: "Scathing eyes ask that we be symmetrical, one-sided and easily processed. Like a machine, they work to understand us, to unlock the way we are alive, and with it our inhibitions. Yet every misshapen spark's unseen beauty is greater than its would-be judgment."
1. Falling

[This idea came to me from josephwilson on tumblr. She knows some of it but not all of it. This is going to be very fun to write. Enjoy!]

It was like falling, but in a cloud. He didn't have a clue as to how exactly he'd gotten there, or where there even was. And yet here he was. He could've been falling for years or even seconds, with his skin feeling heavy against the flow of gravity and his mind swirling in a mess of confused and dizzy slushy.

And then the unstoppable stopped.

He was almost afraid to open his eyes, having them closed in a calm state of comatose for so long. Finally, he did. His bones felt heavy, his muscles aching as he forced them to stretch and move to get up off the...ground? Ceiling? Sky?

Jericho opened up his eyes and still, he felt like he was trapped in his own fever dream. He was floating mid-air, and yet he felt a solid invisible surface beneath his skin that would've been ground.

He forced himself up, feeling like he was learning to walk all over again. The gravity felt different, and the air that filled his lungs felt stale and alien.

After standing up fully, he realized there _was_ a ground, just not what he was used to. It was more like a tight woven, large scale tightrope stretching across his vision. For a few yards, there was a pattern on the "ground", which Jericho assumed _was_ the ground. It was a light green grid, thinner than tooth floss. And yet, in the spaces between the green, Jericho felt a see through tile, like a real floor, just transparent.

Jericho sighed a bit, puzzled, but mostly intrigued. He decided to walk to the edge of the grid.

Only to find that the edge never came.

The more Jericho walked, the more grid became exposed. It seemed to build itself. Jericho would walk one step forward, and as he was walking, small cubes would appear from nowhere and form the next one step of the grid, disappearing in a flurry of numbers when it finished. It worked exactly as fast as Jericho would walk or run, and exactly as slow as he would lean. Jericho turned, and found the opposite for the backwards of him. As he walked forward one step, one step of the grid behind him would dissipate into nothingness again. Jericho tried everything to confuse the grid, to run forward then back, to pounce forward, to spin in several directions, but nothing fooled the grid. It was a perfectly oiled machine.

Jericho sighed, looked all directions for a moment for a trace of anyone in the world, then walked forward. He kept walking and walking, switching from watching the grid form to watching it disappear, and keeping a keen but bored eye out for anyone in the world who could explain his situation.

There was no way to tell how long he'd walked, how far, how little. There wasn't a single change in the landscape. Just more blank, endless, white background against his light green friend, the grid. There weren't any people to help him, no identifiable landmarks-

Jericho grunted as he hit his head on the ground...grid...thing. He'd been walking backwards, watching the grid disappear into nothingness, _assuming_ there was nothingness in front of him as well.

And yet, when he sat up from where he'd tripped, he saw a little green cube sitting on the grid. It was much bigger than the cubes before. The building cubes were about as big as the strings of the grid itself, whereas this cube was about a foot high and a foot wide. Jericho approached it cautiously, staying kneeled on the ground as he observed it. It seemed to have an almost see-through factor to it. Jericho assumed the worst that could happen upon touching it was more excitement than a blank, mindless space, so he quickly poked it, cringing away immediately in case something horrible happened.

Nothing seemed to happen, so Jericho poked it again, and watching as the surface rippled like water, or extremely slow gelatin. His bravery increasing, Jericho picked up the cube and found it so very light, like picking up nothing but air. Jericho shook it in his hands and found it to be solid, nothing in it. Jericho was perplexed to say the least, but quickly just accepted that truly nothing in this place made sense.

Jericho finally noticed letters on the top of the cube, spread out and large like a brand.

"LANDMARK"

Jericho was at a loss, trying to think and think of what this meant, what it was, how it got here the second Jericho was hoping for a landmark.

He decided he couldn't dwell on it. He sighed, placed the cube where it once was, and stood up. He continued walking into the vastness of the white space, the grid disappearing behind him, but creating a small circle around the cube, letting it stay in existence where it stood as Jericho walked away from it.

He sighed again.

He felt like he'd be sighing a lot with all the confusion that this strange place delivered.

[I've been going through a lot lately. I've felt helpless, lost, confused, sad, angry. Not only is this a good idea (that you as the audience don't understand fully yet), it also lets me let all of that out. Review if you'd like.]


	2. Edge

[Chapter 2. Things are slowly coming together, I promise. You're not supposed to understand it just yet.]

Jericho could be found still in his own mysterious little world, this time kicking at what was seemingly a wall.

After what felt like forever of walking, Jericho finally, _finally_ hit an edge of sorts. He literally hit it - he ran right into it.

It was a wall that formed itself before Jericho all at once using the same little cubes as before. It was more blank space against grid, only for once it was a sea blue grid instead of a light green one. It seemed to go up for forever, and Jericho couldn't tell where the wall ended. If he tried to step back to get a wider view, the wall would disappear in a giant flurry of numbers just like the floor would.

And so, as any frustrated, tired, and confused teenager would, he just started kicking at it.

When his foot kicked against the wall, a ripple would leave the area just like in the cube from before. Parts of the light green grid would grow lighter and show the ripple, leaving just as soon as it came.

Jericho looked down at the grid silently for a moment, then just outwardly groaning and flopping onto his back, tired and frustrated.

Jericho started thinking, and that was never good, so he immediately sprung back up and tried to find something else to focus on. The more he thought, the more desperate he would become to get out of his situation, and the faster he would go to panicking.

Jericho looked around, and for once found something out of the ordinary. What seemed forever away from him, a small black dot seemed to fade in and out of existence.

Just as Jericho was thinking about how to get all the way over there, he suddenly just was there.

He felt that falling but floating feeling again, his vision blurred into fuzzy colors, and when it sharpened again he was suddely face to face with the mysterious black dot.

Jericho tested his theory again, imagining his friend, the small green cube from before.

He felt the same feeling as before, and when he opened his eyes, the cube sat at his feet, and the black dot was half forever away again.

Jericho tried again one more time, and he appeared right before the black dot, again.

Jericho huffed, peering at the black dot that was glitching in and out, in and out, like watching the to and fro of waves hitting a beach.

Jericho breathed, then he poked the black dot.

All at once, the black dot shook with energy, fading in and out at a worrying rate, before finally summoning more of the building cubes from before. The cubes expanded the one black dot into a small rectangle shape that seemed to follow Jericho face and line of vision.

All at once a black and white static substance filled the rectangle, reminding Jericho of a small TV screen.

In and out, in and out, in and out he would hear noises, see images, feel the static like it were his own heartbeat.

"Almost...almost...Finally! He's here, you're here, man!"

"Friend Jericho, you are alright! We were all so worried!"

"Dude, way to scare us."

"Where are you?"

"Hello? Jericho? Jericho, answer us, are you okay?" Came from the screen. It showed a living room, and five worried superheroes. Robin, Starfire, Cyborg, Raven, and Beast Boy.

Jericho peered at the screen.

"Do I know you?"

[Review if you'd like.]


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